Impacting Markets

You might be aware of this but the iPad has already begun to disrupt many markets. Some big like the netbook market which has already been relegated to “niche”, and some small like the comic book market. The device is a game changer so if you’re not paying attention it’s time to start. As I mentioned before it’s impacting smallish markets in a big way, like the digital comic industry as posted in CNN under iPad boosts appeal of digital comics.

Industry observers say the iPad’s size, portability and color screen make it a good fit for reading comics. Before the tablet computer launched in April, fans could read digital comics in several ways, neither of which were ideal: on a desktop or laptop computer, or via a smartphone’s tiny screen, panel by panel. As for e-readers, which are primarily made for black-and-white text — forget it.

“The iPad is much better suited for comics, and on that platform, comics are expanding very rapidly,” said Milton Griepp, president and publisher of the trend-watching magazine, ICv2, which reported sales of between $500,000 and $1 million in digital comic sales on mobile apps in 2009.

It’s also impacting the way we consume our social networks. I’m a pretty avid social network user and the iPad apps Flipboard and Pulse have radically changed the way I consume the information. Flipboard goes so far as to allow me to read Twitter like I would read a magazine. It loads my followers as “contributors”, and pull the links they tweet into articles ready to read right inside the app. Innovation to the extreme. (See First look at “revolutionary” social news iPad app: Flipboard for more)

There are countless other examples of this ranging from casual gaming to keeping track of daily tasks. So with that being said, let’s get to why any of this really matters anyway.

Business Impact

Recently I had a CIO I know email me asking for help. His boss had purchased an iPad and he was so enamored by it that he wanted to do away with his laptop all together. The CIO was asking for my insight on how to convince his boss otherwise. You see an iPad is really great for content consumption, and OK for light content creation, but for heavy content creation it takes a laptop. Business leaders, as it turns out, tend to create a lot of content.

We had lunch and I shared some insights and he listened while he ate. He’s a smart guy whom I respect a lot so I was feeling kind of self-conscience about how much I was talking and that my plate was still untouched when his meal was already finished. When I had exhausted most of my knowledge I asked him a question. I said, “So what do you think IT needs to do about all these new devices and social networks that employees are bringing to the workplace? How will IT control company information and employee productivity?” and I began to eat furiously. This was my “give me some time to eat” question. This was a question I had heard in countless IT leadership round tables on which I’ve participated over the past few years. It seemed every IT Director and CIO in Chicagoland was trying to figure out what to do about the rogue iPhone employees and the “all throughout the day” Facebook users. They always ended with the same solution, create a company policy against usage…which we all know is like trying to tell a millennial to cut their hands off. What this CIO sitting across from me said next rocked my mind. He was so it was so right on – he said,

“You know Andy, in 3-5 years I don’t think IT will provision any devices to employees. None at all. Employees will be responsible for purchasing their own phones, devices, laptops, tablets, etc. They will bring them to IT and IT will enable their access levels appropriately. My responsibility, he said, will be to keep the information safe on the company side of the firewall. That’s it.”

And there it was. Plain as day. The proverbial “Ah-Ha” moment. The entire technology industry has already shifted right under our very noses. How? The enterprise used to drive the technology industry. People used what IT gave them. IT locked things down to keep the company, and the employees, safe and secure. Now things are different. The consumer is driving technology, not the enterprise. Now the market cap swap between AAPL and MSFT makes all the sense in the world.

Andy leads the interactive offerings and staff engineers at StudioNorth. He consults with clients on strategic technology direction and personally oversees the key phases of the iterative development cycle for many large technology projects. Whether for public web sites, private extranets, or custom applications, Andy uses his rich experience to provide results-driven solutions to our clients. He’s known for being a visionary and for coining the phrase, “conservative wow” in reference to StudioNorth’s ability to create high-impact projects for some of our more conventional audiences. If you want to bring your brand beyond “2.0″, Andy is your connection.

Want to track Andy a little closer? You can follow him on Twitter.

Recently there have been many impressive web sites created with Papervision 3D. Some of these sites are not only used for 3D aesthetic purposes but also used as interactive pieces. One such site is: Absolut’s, “In An Absolut World” http://www.absolut.com/iaaw/. This site features interactive 3D cubes that may be stacked on top of each other to form different shapes. They may be grabbed with the mouse and thrown around on screen. They may be rotated and spun in different directions, where the speed changes depending on the speed at which the users’ mouse moves. It is a impressive site to play with, however it does have its pitfalls. One of its pitfalls is the camera movement and viewpoint. When looking around the site the camera follows the movements of the mouse which makes the user experience less enjoyable. It feels and seems somewhat awkward and annoying when you want to look at the cubes at a certain angle but you simply can’t, the camera moves and changes the view.

However, a 3D web interface which has excellent camera control is, “The Eco Zoo” http://ecodazoo.com/. The user may control the camera by grabbing inside the viewport and moving the mouse in any direction which in turn allows the camera great flexibility in its movements. Not only does this site have excellent camera control but the interface is very robust, it incorporates both 2D and 3D navigation formats. The main navigation is a cardboard 3D tree with characters making their home on or in it which may be interacted with or they may be selected via a 2D menu at the top of the screen. The interface was created very intuitively and makes navigation to the characters’ specific pop-up books very simple. “The Eco Zoo” is not only an excellent example of a 3D web interface, but is also educational and it handles some current problems with these types of interfaces very effectively.

Current problems with 3D interfaces deter users away from them for the following reasons: They don’t really use the third dimension in a way that is useful or convenient, computer resources demand is high, and displaying large amounts of data may become overwhelming. These may seem like significant problems with 3D interfaces but they may be worked out solved effectively. One site which has worked out a way to display large amounts of information in an intuitive 3D web interface is MSNBC’s “Spectra visual newsreader” http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24207533/. “Spectra” has been able to effectively meld a 2D web interface with a 3D web interface to make it much more useful, entertaining and aesthetically pleasing experience to the user.

In order to make 3D interfaces more useful and convenient we first need to develop simple applications and interactive environments which are intuitive to users. Despite everything we can do today with 3D interfaces we are more than likely able to accomplish the same things with 2D interfaces. However the 3D interfaces are much more entertaining and engaging to users. Such is the case with the White Voids web site: http://www.whitevoid.com/application. White Void could have created their site in a 2D space but decided to go 3D because of the spacial and aesthetic value 3D offered. Use of a 3D interface for their site made the user experience exponentially more enjoyable. It also separated them from the norm and made them nationally recognized and known through out the design world for creating one of the best 3D web interfaces.

However, many people are accustomed to a 2D desktop because that is what we see and use on a day to day basis. We place items on our desks and remember where they are using spatial memory. When we do this in a third dimension we also do the same thing, in both ways we are using spatial memory. Both 2D and 3D interfaces require certain amounts of persistence in that when you put something down you expect it to remain there till you get back to it. Persistence will also be required of the user; the user will need to be patient in order to develop efficient usage patterns, the interfaces themselves will need to entertain in order to maintain the user’s interest.

3D interfaces are mainly used for entertainment purposes such as video games or for presenting data which is naturally three dimensional, (CAD, Architecture, etc.) However we are slowly creating 3D web interfaces which are not only aesthetically pleasing and intuitive but are useful 3D web interfaces. Creating a third dimension on the web maintains a user’s interest, provides entertainment value and creates an intuitive experience. When a user picks up a wrench to tighten a bolt with the mouse or interacts with 3D folders in a tree structure they are becoming more accustomed to interacting with a 3D environment. Intuitive interactive 3D environments will pave the path for 3D interfaces. The more we expose ourselves to 3D elements on the web the easier it will be to implement 3D interfaces in an intuitive, entertaining and useful application. The World Wide Web is going in the direction of 3D web interfaces and we may only hope to take steps in the right direction to ensure its success.

Greg Peczkowicz

Greg is an Interface Engineer at StudioNorth. He designs and develops highly complex and usable Web applications for all ranges of StudioNorth’s clientèle. When Greg isn’t programming ActionScript or creating smooth exponentially eased tweens you can find him snowboarding in Wisconsin or kayaking on the Des Plaines river.

But since 2001, the Studio has evolved, undergoing many technical changes that naturally led the testing environment to change as well.

Our first endeavor was creating a content management system that gave our clients the ability to add, edit and delete content on their own web pages. This step had extensive implications for back-end administration as it required resources to manage security, user accounts, pages, and some file pooling for sharing between the document management system (DMS) and the CMS.

As the CMS application expanded and changed, the test plan evolved as well. To accommodate, we created a generic test plan that could be applied to all clients that used the CMS. This helped with regression testing and ensured that an update in one area did not impact the application in another area.

The next Studio enhancement was the added emphasis on Flash programming. Initially, we included a .swf file in the HTML that would be isolated on a page and usually involved some slick animation that caught the user’s eyes. In order to sustain this, the testing department needed to become familiar with all aspects of Flash, including its different versions and the effects of uninstalling it in browsers that did not already have the application. Sometimes, corporations keep tight control over what version of Flash resides on the desktop. At SN, we’re prepared with contingencies because, as always, our goal is to maintain a seamless experience for all types of users, from the savvy guy running the application on Vista/IE7 to the one running Windows 98 on an IE 5.5 browser.

Over the course of seven years, perhaps the greatest challenges in our evolution have been learning from our mistakes and being able to anticipate the unexpected. For example, there will be times when a user leaves a field blank and hits the enter key. In order to prevent a system error from popping up on the screen because the programmer and tester did not anticipate that a null value would be entered, we’ve learned to test what is inputted as well as what is omitted. We’ve also learned that some users like to “test” the integrity of the system by inputting as many characters as the field allows. Thanks to this caveat, all of SN’s newbies know that “maxlengths” are a programmer’s best friend.

Java came with its own set of challenges — beginning with apostrophes that translated into question marks and limitless integer fields. Now, all input fields are routinely tested for “weird characters” and extremely large, zero and negative values to ensure that if the user does enter these into the system, the system will be able to handle it gracefully. For added security, we’ve adapted our thinking to match the naive user and the hard-core hacker. Whether a user enters the system via the login screen or tries to enter by hard-coding the security link into the URL, our job is to guarantee that the system will be safeguarded against innocent and malicious alike.

As we learn to master the defects and accept the enhancements to our department, we also like to celebrate our accomplishments here at the Studio. One of our biggest pats on the back came when we developed our proprietary Defect Tracking System. This SQL back-end web application offers the QA department and developers a chance to collaborate on projects and track the issues on a per-project basis. Because projects are not deemed ready to go live until all issues are resolved, this systems helps ensure that problems are not forgotten or lost in the shuffle.

In the growth process, we not only learn from our mistakes, but we take recommendations from our most important critics — our clients. We enjoyed a great leap in quality when we took the recommendation of a client to put our system under a “stress test” to ensure that it would operate smoothly with 100 users hitting it at the same time. Since we don’t even have 100 computers here at the Studio, we had to look into a stress tool that could simulate 100 users accessing the system. After researching other tools on the market, we opted for an open source application to run our test against. This tool gives us the unique ability to go into the code and make the necessary adjustments in order to simulate 100 different users logging into the system via a login screen. Most stress tools do not allow for such adjustments; rather, all 100 simulated users would be using the same login — which of course would not be a true test of the system’s capabilities.

We were able to run the tests after business hours and report on the number of errors encountered, the server thresholds, and the number of requests processed in a second. Once our client saw the reports, they were more than satisfied that their application would run without incident. We’re thrilled to report that it did, in fact, run flawlessly when the application opened to audiences a week later.

Going forward, QA is looking for ways to improve the productivity and accuracy of all of the applications we develop. With Andy at the helm pushing our developers to be on the cutting edge of technology, it’s never boring or stagnant in our area. We realize that when collaboration happens between departments, the needs of the client are better met and managed — that’s what makes StudioNorth an integrated brand communications agency. Currently, we are reviewing a new online defect tracking/project management tool that will allow us to align projects with any issues associated with the program. Because it’s accessible at the project management level, the application will be open to viewing and editing by both our Client Services and Interactive departments.

We’re also looking into automated testing tools to aid us with regression testing. Regression testing involves testing the application to make sure that what was working before is still working after the updates are applied. Regression testing tools save time and money, and ensure that the application behaves as expected.

To ensure that our evolution continues, we make it a priority to be up to date on the latest technologies, hot trends and current forecasts. We receive QA feeds in our email accounts on a daily basis, order books and videos, and attend training classes to make us the best testers that we can possibly be.

Laura Zavala

Laura leads the quality assurance team in the testing of applications at StudioNorth. Before any program is released, she subjects all applications to rigorous testing in such areas as browser compatibility, operating systems, business rules and requirements, stress testing (performance), link checking, and overall usability. Laura has been with the Studio since 2001. With more than 15 years of experience in programming and project management, she is well versed in testing methodologies as they relate to Web, Flash, desktop, and extranet applications.

Not a website? What does that even mean? You can classify www.studionorth.com revision 5 as two things, and neither of them count as “website” in my book. First and foremost, it’s an environment. It’s built on a true 3D engine. It’s defined and exists in an x, y, and z Cartesian coordinate system. It has a moving camera and lights. You don’t just go to www.studionorth.com, you go into www.studionorth.com.

Second this is a web application. It runs inside a virtual machine (Flash 9). It has both heavy client and heavy server components. Things like the Brand Focus Calculator run almost exclusivly inside the client and do all their processing there. They share data and processing with the server only when necessary for longer persistence or data storage.

Yeah, this isn’t a website. This is something different. This is something breakthrough.

-Andy

Andy leads the interactive offerings and staff engineers at StudioNorth. He consults with clients on strategic technology direction and personally oversees the key phases of the iterative development cycle for many large technology projects. Whether for public web sites, private extranets, or custom applications, Andy uses his rich experience to provide results-driven solutions to our clients. He’s known for being a visionary and for coining the phrase, “conservative wow” in reference to StudioNorth’s ability to create high-impact projects for some of our more conventional audiences. If you want to bring your brand beyond “2.0″, Andy is your connection.

Want to track Andy a little closer? You can follow him on Twitter.